Tag Archives: maintenance measurement metrics

I’ve worked in the plant maintenance industry for years. How did KPI’s look in those days? Here is an example KPI in 1988: “Keep the machines running”.

Fresh out of engineering school and thrown into the corporate engine, my life was all about keeping the conveyor belts running. That was the priority (and still is, but said differently) at United Parcel Service so that little Jimmy would get his red wagon in time for Christmas. Although we had no clue that they had a name (KPIs), here was our mission during the UPS days:

Keep the belts running

Get your PM’s done

Anything stopped for 15 minutes was a breakdown

Make sure mechanics knew how to make a repair the UPS way

That is..because every action that a mechanic took was measured using a DOS program built by UPS (called PEMMS)

Now UPS was way ahead of their time with work measurement, starting, of course, among the fleet delivery drivers. They moved that successful approach to every aspect of the business, including maintenance.

Now the world is catching up to such great role models like UPS. However, the aspect of defining KPI’s has still been somewhat behind the curve. KPIs can be a mystery unless you happen to be a maintenance professional with enough hours available in the day for reading all the great maintenance measurement books available. Show me one of those people and I will immediately tell you that that person is a consultant. (No offense to the great consultants. I am guilty as charged)

Once again the Internet is bailing us out by saving a ton of time and making KPI definitions easier to grasp and define (without having to read a novel then construct a maintenance business plan, etc).